1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to methods for training toddlers to walk and/or for facilitating such training.
2. Description of the Related Art
During the months after an infant enters the world at birth, the infant undergoes a variety of important physical and mental developmental stages. Initially, very basic concepts are learned and fundamental physical development begins. Gradually, the infant's physical development improves until the infant begins to learn how to stand and/or walk for short periods. Learning how to walk is one of the most critical skills and building blocks in child development. For adults, this skill is often taken for granted, but the development of complete walking skills is a gradual process. After an infant's first few steps, there is a long time-period over which a toddler's walking skills develop. An infant's "clumsiness" during this time period can have a variety of effects--from placing the infant's safety at risk to causing frustration for the infant, parent and/or caretaker. It is thus important to enable infants to learn this important skill without outside impositions or limitations that may inhibit the infant's ability to learn this skill.
Despite this need, the present inventor has found that in today's culture, parents unwittingly create an environment that actually inhibits an infant's walking development. Specifically, in our culture, infants or toddlers are often clothed in garments that can actually hamper or retard the development of this skill. Notably, toddlers between the ages of about 6 months and 21/2 years (and more notably between about 10 months and 11/2 years old) are often clothed in pants or garments having two pant legs with bottom openings through which the infant's feet penetrate. However, with infant's within this age group, it is highly difficult to size pants properly. Unlike adults or older children, as shown in FIG. 1, the pant legs of garments for toddlers in this age group can easily slip or extend beyond the bottoms of the infant's feet. This is due to a variety of factors, such as for example that: 1) parents often purchase over-sized pants to accommodate an infant's high growth rate during this age period; 2) proper pant fitting is more difficult during this age period due to the toddler's smaller size (e.g., children in this age group are often less than 31/2 feet tall, or even less than 3 feet tall or even smaller); 3) in order to allow free movement, over-sized clothing is often used for such infants to accommodate an infant's greater physical flexibility; 4) an infant's typical body structure, e.g., small foot size, short legs size and stocky body frame can render proper pant leg fitting problematic. In addition, infants that are beginning to learn walking skills may still spend a considerable amount of time crawling (i.e., moving forward on their hands and knees), which action creates a frictional drag on the infant's pants and can force the pants downwards below the infant's feet.
FIG. 1(A) shows a conventional garment 1 having a pair of pant legs 2 and 3. As shown, the pant legs 2 and 3 have respective openings 2A and 3A through which the infant's feet RF and LF (shown in part in dashed lines) are intended to penetrate. However, as shown in FIG. 1(A), with infants in this age group, such pant legs 2 and 3 may extend well under the bottom walking surface WS of the infant's feet. For example, as shown in FIG. 1(B), the pant leg 2 can extend such that the rear side 2R of the pant leg 2 lies below the walking surface WS of the infant's foot--e.g., past the heal region H, or past the arch region A, or past the ball region A, or even past the toe region T as shown. In addition, as shown in FIG. 1(B), the front side 2F of the pant leg 2 can extend past the toes of the infant's feet so as to even turn back under the foot RF below the walking surface WF from the front side of the foot RF. Accordingly, the pant leg 2 can substantially inhibit a toddler's walking training and safety therewith. As shown in FIG. 1(A), similar problems can occur with the pant leg 3. As shown in FIGS. 1(A) and 1(B), in contrast to garments for adults and older children, toddler's pant garments can be very baggy. As shown, the diameter between the front side 2F and the rear side 2R of a pant leg can often be greater (and even substantially greater) than the length of the toddler's foot between the back of the heel H and the tip of the toes T, which facilitates undesirable positioning of the pant legs below the toddler's feet.
As a result, by clothing infant's in pants or similar garments, parents have placed substantial limitations upon the development of infant's walking skills. Infant's in this age group (i.e., in the age group in which walking skills are learned) often struggle with falling pant legs that catch below their feet, causing them to fall or the like. At times, pant legs can even extend so far below an infant's feet to even become entangled with each other.
Parents have sometimes rolled up the ends of an infant's pants or tucked the ends of the infant's pants into the infant's socks. But, these methods are inadequate to allow proper and safe development of an infant's walking skills, etc., as discussed above.
In unrelated arts, some devices have been provided having straps proximate a grown individual's legs. U.S. Pat. No. 4,700,406 shows a method of using a plurality of flexible straps in an unrelated art to secure an adult athlete's shin guards. U.S. Pat. No. 2,480,276 shows a cuff for adult trousers having straps 21 and 24 sewn integrally therewith to provide "an ornamental appearance" and to be "useful for outdoor winter wear" (see col. 1, line 6). U.S. Pat. No. 3,411,160 shows an adult's securing means for "securing the free end of . . . trouser legs . . . to obtain a neat appearance without discomfort . . . " (see col. 1, lines 14-17). In particular, the '160 patent provides a method to "blouse" the ends of the pant legs for "military" uniforms. U.S. Pat. No. 2,596,112 shows another trouser blousing method for "paratroopers" uniforms, having a strap 4 with a depending strap 7 that is attached to the paratrooper's boot-top. U.S. Pat. No. 4,393,522 shows an ankle garter having an ankle band 12 and a depending U-shaped stirrup 10 "to narrow and hold the bottom of pants in place so that a sock or boot will fit over it with ease" (see col. 1, lines 5-6). U.S. Pat. No. 2,605,471 shows a sleeping garment with integrally attached feet, which has a reinforcing band 13 integrally attached thereto.
There remains a need for a method to facilitate the development of a toddler's walking skills despite unique problems related to toddler pant legs (e.g., extending below the bottoms of a toddler's feet) which inhibit such development. There also remains a need to preform such a method with a device that can be securely retained and easily used and reused on a consistent, e.g., daily, basis.